$5 billion Iran-India underwater gas pipeline: More than a pipedream

The $5 billion SAGE Middle to India Deepwater Pipeline — that seeks to ferry around 30 mmscmd of gas from Iran to India — is being pushed with much doggedness by its New Delhi-based private promoters. There is even talk of building another parallel pipeline soon after the first one is done!
Several years of efforts have culminated in a presentation made before the Iranian oil minister recently.
The promoters have calculated that the landed price of piped gas at around $1-2/mmbtu cheaper than LNG.
The Iranians seem interested in the fact that only transportation tariff will be applicable in comparison to liquefaction charges, transportation tariff and regas charges applicable to LNG.
The point to note is that a reasonable amount of footwork has already been done by the promoters in terms of identifying and testing out deepwater pipeline manufacturers, lay vessels and a repair systems for the deepwater pipeline.